World English Bible · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 46
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word which came to the concerning the nations. Of : concerning the army of Necoh king of , which was by the river in , which king of struck in the fourth year of the son of , king of Judah. "Prepare the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle! Harness the horses, and get up, you horsemen, and stand up with your helmets. Polish the spears, put on the coats of mail. Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward. Their mighty ones are beaten down, have fled in haste, and don't look back. Terror is on every side," . "Don't let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape. In the north by the river they have stumbled and fallen. "Who is this who rises up like , like rivers whose waters surge? rises up like , like rivers whose waters surge. He says, 'I will rise up. I will cover the earth. I will destroy cities and its inhabitants.' Go up, you horses! Rage, you chariots! Let the go out: and Put, who handle the shield; and the , who handle and bend the bow. For that day is of , of Armies, a day of , that he may himself of his . will devour and be satiated, and will drink its fill of their ; for , of Armies, has a in the north country by the river . Go up into , and take balm, virgin daughter of . You use many medicines in . There is no healing for you. have heard of your , and the earth is full of your cry; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they both fall together." The word that spoke to the , how that king of should come and strike the land of : "Declare in , publish in , and publish in and in ; say, 'Stand up, and prepare, for has devoured around you.' Why are your strong ones swept away? They didn't stand, because pushed them. He made many to stumble. Yes, they fell on one another. They said, 'Arise! Let's go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing .' They cried there, ' king of is but a noise; he has let the pass by.' "As I live," says the King, whose name is of Armies, "surely like among the mountains, and like by the sea, so he will come. You daughter who dwells in , furnish yourself to go into ; for will become a desolation, and will be burned up, without inhabitant. " is a very beautiful heifer; but out of the north has come. It has come. Also her hired men in the middle of her are like calves of the stall, for they also are turned back. They have fled away together. They didn't stand, for the day of their calamity has come on them, the time of their visitation. Its sound will go like , for they will march with an army, and come against her with axes, as wood cutters. They will cut down her forest," , "though it can't be searched; because they are more than the , and are innumerable. The daughter of will be disappointed; she will be into the hand of the people of the north." of Armies, the of Israel, says: "Behold, I will punish of No, and , and , with her gods and her kings, even , and those who in him. I will them into the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of king of , and into the hand of his servants. Afterwards it will be inhabited, as in the days of old," . "But don't you be afraid, my servant. Don't be dismayed, Israel; for, behold, I will you from afar, and from the land of their . will return, and will be quiet and at ease. No one will make him afraid. Don't be afraid, O my servant," , "for I am with you; for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished."
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Babylon and the exile, 612 BC to 539 BC ›
Babylon replaces Assyria, Jerusalem and its temple are destroyed in 586 BC, and the leadership of Judah lives in Mesopotamia without a king, a temple, or a country.
- Babylon
- Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilds the city on a scale meant to be seen from a distance: the Ishtar Gate in glazed blue brick, the processional way, the ziggurat, and gardens later counted among the wonders of the world. Babylonian tablets record rations issued to the captive king Jehoiachin of Judah by name, which is one of the tidier points of contact between the Bible and the archives.
- Egypt
- Briefly resurgent. Pharaoh Neco marches north, kills King Josiah at Megiddo, and installs and deposes kings in Jerusalem, until Babylon beats him decisively at Carchemish in 605 BC. Jeremiah spends his career saying that betting on Egypt is suicide, and is proved right.
- Judah
- Deported in stages, then destroyed. The temple is burned, the walls broken, and the leadership marched to Mesopotamia. What happens next is one of the strangest survivals in history: a people keeps its identity without land, king, or sanctuary, and comes out of it with its scriptures more central than before.
- Further afield
- An extraordinary century for ideas everywhere at once. Thales and the first Greek philosophers, Solon's reforms at Athens, the Buddha in India, Confucius and Lao Tzu in China, and Zoroaster in Persia all fall within a few generations of the exile.
All of Jeremiah